“Anna Neytsen” [= Anna-Felicia Neyts (d. 1704)(?)].

[Heraldic working manuscript].

Netherlands (Bruges?), in or shortly after 1669.

Folio (32 x 21 cm.), 128 leaves, manuscript on paper, executed in ink and pencil. Comprising over 2.500 coats of arms, systematically arranged and captioned, with numerous annotations, corrections, excluding several pages of blank shields. Also some pasted paper flaps, revealing revised versions of individual arms while preserving earlier states beneath—clear evidence of an active and evolving working process. Several blank leaves.

Modern calf, covers decorated with blind-tooled fillets and corner ornaments, spine with five raised bands.

               “Memorandum of the crest devices that I still lack to draw, and some others that are still missing.”

With this sentence, Anna Neytsen opens her heraldic working manuscript, which encompasses a vast collection of arms from the Northern and Southern Netherlands, northern France and the German lands, with a particular focus on completing the crests and other elements above the shield.

The manuscript was very possibly compiled by Anna-Felicia Neyts (d. 1704), of the prominent Bruges Neyts family of Bruges and the Brugse Vrije, a milieu in which heraldic knowledge formed an important component of aristocratic and patrician identity. The only internal date is 1669, recorded in a note concerning the recent death of an individual. Together with the characteristically 17th-century hand, this provides a secure terminus for the manuscript, which was likely compiled in or shortly after that year.

The association with a named female hand is of considerable interest. Female participation in heraldic practice is extremely rare, and while the precise extent of Neyts’s authorship cannot be established with absolute certainty, the manuscript offers valuable evidence for women’s involvement in the compilation and transmission of heraldic knowledge in the 17th century.

The manuscript is further distinguished by its focus on crest devices (timbres). Early modern heraldic collections often privilege the shield alone, whereas the present volume is explicitly concerned with the completion and documentation of the elements above it. With approximately 2,700 drawn arms, it represents a notably extensive working corpus.

Rather than a presentation volume, this is a freely worked reference manuscript, rich in corrections, additions, and layered revisions, offering an unusually direct insight into working practices.

Condition: binding slightly rubbed at edges, parts of a couple pages removed, some writing in pencil faded, otherwise in very good condition.

Reference: for Anna-Felicia Neyts see: Van den Abeele, A., (2001) “Jacob en Frans Neyts en hun familieleden: enkele biografische aanvullingen”, Handelingen van het Genootschap voor Geschiedenis 138(1-2), 56-100.